cook bacon until crispy, set aside keeping the fat in the pan and saute onions in fat until translucent.
Crush bacon into little pieces and mix with onions in separate bowl.
Drain MOST of bacon grease from pan and set aside.
Add pumpkin to frying pan and saute until hot.
Add spices and let cook for a minute
Add goat cheese, stir until it blends
Add a little more bacon grease if mixture gets dry.
Add bacon and onions to mixture and let everything blend.

Let mixture cool in a bowl.

When mixture is cool enough, start making wontons:
Spoon small (like, kid's spoonful) of mixture into middle of wonton wrapper. Fold over on the diagonal making a triangle shape. Seal edges with water or egg whites (we usually use egg whites, but because I made these w/ the kids I used water). Place on floured plate until ready to fry.

When you finish making the wontons heat up a sautee pan 1/3 full of olive oil until it start smoking (HOT!!!). Fry up wontons a few at a time until brown and crispy (you'll probably have to turn them over once) and place them on a paper towel covered plate to cool.
Roll one or two into a lettuce leaf (romaine) and munch away!

Preparation

1. Combine first 9 ingredients in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and cook, stirring occasionally, 23 minutes or until chicken is done and tender. Remove from heat; shred with 2 forks to measure 2 cups meat. Place 1/2 cup chicken on bottom half of each roll. Top each with 3 pickles and top half of roll.

I make stuffed cabbage casserole, because I think that rolling up the beef/rice is a PITA. Plus, when you eat it, you just cut it all up anyway. Here's the recipe that I use. I usually serve it with/over plain mashed potatoes.

On work surface, lay chicken breasts flat. Squeeze 1/2 lemon over the top side of the chicken (which will become the 'inside' of the stuffed breast). Sprinkle remaining 1/2 tsp of oregano on this side of chicken also. Sprinkle feta cheese onto half of the 'inside' of the chicken breast. Divide spinach mixture amongst chicken breasts and top each chicken piece over the half with feta cheese. Fold the chicken piece in half over itself (now the spinach and feta are on the 'inside' and it is stuffed).

I lightly browned the chicken in a skillet over medium high for 2 minutes per side and then baked it off in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes. Alternately you can just bake it until done at 375 and skip the browning step. When I took it out of the oven, I immediately squeezed the other half of lemon on top of the chicken.

Basically, you break the noodles, cook them. Then, saute ground beef, onions, and carrots until done. Mix together with tomatoes, white wine and some other stuff. Layer some of the noodles, then meat sauce, dollops of ricotta x2. Pour alfredo over the very top with some shredded parm, cook until the cheese is melty. When I make it, I'll add more seasoning to it. I see mixing basil, garlic, oregano, etc. to the sauce and cheese. But, it only took her 40 minutes from chopping to table.

Note: The actual recipe calls for ground beef and veal and my neighbor made it with ground beef and turkey.

Directions

Combine first 8 ingredients and form into 5 patties. Brush or drizzle patties with extra-virgin olive oil. Grill patties 6 minutes on each side on indoor electric grill or pan fry for same amount of time in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Pile patties on split crusty rolls with lettuce, tomato, and chutney spread liberally on roll tops as a condiment. Serve curry turkey burgers with Thai Slaw and root vegetable chips.

Garnish:

Toasted sesame seeds

Combine vegetables in a bowl. Combine dressing ingredients in a small plastic container and shake vigorously for 1 minute. Drizzle sauce over vegetables and toss to coat evenly. Let stand 10 minutes and re-toss before serving and garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

DIRECTIONS:
Cook lasagna until noodles are cooked, but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes, drain and rinse. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Spread the marinara sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 glass baking dish; set aside.

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat; cook and add mushrooms and onion until they soften add wine and simmer about 5 minutes. Add cooked spinach; and cook until hot; remove from heat.

Stir together the chicken, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, oregano, and the cooked spinach mixture in a large bowl; season to taste with salt and black pepper. Spread large spoonful of mixture on each lasagna noodle. Roll the noodle up, and place seam-side down into the baking dish. Repeat for each noodle. Pour Alfredo sauce over the rollups.
Bake covered, in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and pine nuts. Return to the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and bubbly and the pine nuts are toasted, about 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Note from Stacy re: water content: It doesn't get too watery. You cook the onions, spinach and mushrooms together in a pan before mixing them into the cheese concoction. So if it's watery I just let it simmer off. I also use a rotisserie chicken. That's something that I do for any dish that calls for cut up chicken as an ingredient. I only cook chicken when we're having chicken. Otherwise it seems like I'm making two meals.

Mix water, sugar and yeast in heated mixing bowl and allow yeast 7 - 10 minutes to activate. Once yeast is activated, add remaining ingredients and mix with wooden spoon until it comes together as a mass. Using dough hook with electric mixer, knead dough for 10 minutes on speed 2, adding any additional water or flour in first 2 minutes. After kneading, turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead by hand an additional 1 or 2 minutes - avoid incorporating much additional flour at this point. Roll into tight dough ball and place into lightly greased bowl, turning to coat all sides of dough ball with oil (alternately, 'paint' small amount of oil onto top surface of dough ball). Cover with plastic wrap and allow to double in size in warm, dry place. Once dough is doubled in size, punch down to remove trapped air bubbles. Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead for 1 or 2 minutes. Pull dough apart into 8 or 10 balls of dough. Set aside and cover with dry tea towel. Allow balls of dough to rise for 20 - 30 minutes. In the meantime, heat over to 450 degrees with a cookie sheet upside down on middle rack (this will become the hot cooking surface). After the dough balls have rested, roll them *just before you bake them* I can fit 4 pitas onto my cookie sheet, so I only roll 4 at a time - keeping the others covered until I am ready to use them. Roll to about 1/8 inch thickness or so. Too thin and they won't puff, too thick and they won't puff... Try not to make the pitas too big - maybe 4 or 5 inches across is all. This is the trial and error part! Roll 2 - 4 pitas, depending on what your cookie sheet will fit. Spray the inside of your oven, including the cookie sheet with water before you put the pitas on it. Water should skip and dance off the cookie sheet as soon as it is sprayed. Put pitas on hot cookie sheet and bake for 3 - 5 minutes until puffed and done. I usually don't turn my pitas over, and I prefer not to have them be too brown (they get crunchy that way. So, I usually go for 3 minutes, maybe 4. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool....

In mixing bowl (I actually 'heat' my mixing bowl by inverting it and running under hot water for a minute or two so that the water for the yeast doesn't cool down so much to not activate the yeast) combine the water, sugar and yeast. Allow to sit for 7 - 10 minutes for yeast to activate. Once yeast is activated, add remaining ingredients and combine with wooden spoon until mixture is sort of together into one mass. I use my electric mixer with dough hook and knead the dough for 10 minutes on level 2. In first 2 minutes I add more flour or water if necessary. Turn dough ball out onto lightly floured surface and knead by hand for additional minute or two - try not to work any additional flour into dough ball (dough will be sticky). Form into tight ball and place into greased glass bowl, brushing the top of the dough ball lightly with olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap and place in warm dry area for 2 hours or until doubled in size (one technique I read about and I use is turn the oven to 450 degrees for 25 seconds, then turn oven off. Place bowl with dough ball into the slightly warmed oven). After dough has doubled in size, punch down to release trapped bubbles, knead gently on a lightly floured surface for a minute or two, then form into 2 baguettes (or 4 small torpedo rolls), place both onto lightly greased cookie sheet. I can't really explain how to form the baguettes, best I can suggest is to look on you tube for how to instruactions on forming baguettes. Optionally you can sprinkle a little corn meal onto the lightly greased cookie sheet before putting the baguettes on it. Cover baguettes with towel and allow to rise a second time for about 20 or 30 minutes. Just enough time to get the oven preheated to 425 degrees.

Just before putting the bread into the oven, spray the sides and bottom of your oven with water in a spray bottle. About 5 sprays each. The more humid air is supposed to lend itself to a crispier crust. Bake for a total of 12 - 15 minutes. After each 5 minutes of baking, spray the sides and bottom of oven again. Bread is done when it is browned all around and sounds 'hollow' when tapped on the underside. Let rest for 5 or 10 minutes before slicing.

Let rise for two hours then refrigerate over night (covered loosely). Then, basically pull off some pieces, shape them how you want them using lots of flour, and bake on a stone. The thinner the bread, the hotter the oven (and thicker bread needs a broiler pan of water on the shelf beneath). The pitas were supposed to be baked at like 500F, which had me freaking out and on edge to begin with.

I used my mandolin to julienne the squashes and pepper. Then I sliced the onion thinly. I peeled/deveined the shrimp and put them in a separate bowl. Then I mixed up the marinade and divided it between the veggies and the shrimp. I let them hang out in fridge for a few hours.

Brown the beef and onion until semi cooked. Add everything else to taste. You don't need too much tomato sauce... the mixture should not be liquidy.

Chicken Mixture

Boneless skinless chicken breast
Salsa
1 can diced tomatoes

Pour diced tomatoes and about 1/2 jar of salsa on the chicken. Cover with foil and bake at 375 for half an hour or so. Once out of the over, shred. I mix in some of the juice to the shredded chicken.

OK, so once you have the mixture of your choice, you need to heat some oil and a pat of butter in a cast iron skillet. Place a corn tortilla in the skillet. Add a TB or two of the chicken or beef to the center of the tortilla. Fold in half to create a taco. You'll have to hold the taco for a few seconds until the tortilla keeps its shape. Cook on each side until the taco is your desired crispness. Jonah likes his semi-soft. I like mine crispy but still chewy. Be sure to add more butter and oil as needed. I usually add butter every other rotation (I will do 3 tacos in the pan at once).

First take 1 teaspoon of your ranch dressing mix and combine it with 1 1/2 T parmesan cheese. Set aside. Combine the remaining ranch mix with 3/4 C mayo and 3/4 C milk and place in the fridge to chill.

Unroll your pizza dough onto a lightly floured surface. Pat or roll the dough so it's about 12" by 8". You're going to want to cut it into 24 squares, so just eyeball it if you need to. Use a pizza cutter to slice the dough into 24 squares.

Place cheese and desired toppings on each square.

When all of your dough squares have cheese and toppings on them, carefully lift up each square and wrap the dough around the toppings.

I grab the four corners first and then squeeze the seams shut. Then place them seam side down in a lightly sprayed pie pan (or similar sized dish). Brush with melted butter or olive oil and sprinkle with the parmesan-ranch mixture.

Place your rolls in the oven. I've noticed baking time really depends on the type of dough I'm using. Whether it's different brands from the store, or homemade dough, they all take different amounts of time. Set your timer for 10 minutes and check on them after that. They may take up to 15 or 20 to be done. Take them out when they're lightly golden on top.

Serve them warm with a side of freshly made ranch dressing for dipping.

Note:
These can also be baked individually in a mini-muffin tin. This might work better for serving depending on the situation. You're making 24 rolls, so it fills up the pan perfectly. They cook quicker this way than in a pie pan so keep an eye on them. Mine only took about 8 minutes whereas the ones in the pan took about 13-15.

Mix above ingredients together well. Refrigerate for 1 - 2 hours. Shape into hamburger patties and grill over medium heat until desired doneness. Top with Havarti cheese for a fantastic flavor! Serve with sliced onion, tomato, pickles and lettuce. Usually corn on the cob is the accompaniment. These end up peppery and meaty. Despite the low fat content of the beef, they end up pretty juicy. You won't miss the other 16% fat that is in standard ground beef! We find our 4% at Trader Joe's....

Over medium high heat, sear chicken boobs in small amount of olive oil until brown on each side (about 3 - 4 min/side). Using jarred sauce, cover chicken and put in oven on 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cover each chicken piece with slice fresh mozzarella and some shredded parm. Bake an additional 5 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink in the middle.

I serve on some spaghetti noodles, covered with the sauce. The jarred spaghetti sauce condenses down (which is why I use 2 jars!) a lot and concentrates the flavor really well. As the chicken is baking in the sauce, it adds extra flavor as well. It's really good and a fantastic quick go to meal when it's not too hot to turn on the oven.

Parmesan chicken is traditionally made with boneless, skinless chicken breasts. We use breasts, but thighs too, if we are starting with a whole chicken.

Ingredients

Sauce:

2 medium garlic cloves, peeled and minced

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes (we use Muir-Glen)

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon sugar

Salt and ground black pepper

Chicken:

3 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 Tbsp white-wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

4 (5-oz) skinless boneless chicken breast halves (or deboned thighs)

3/4 cup of breadcrumbs (we make our breadcrumbs from old French bread)

1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Method

1 Prepare the sauce. In a large saucepan, heat the garlic and oil together over medium high heat until the garlic starts to sizzle. Stir in the tomatoes, basil, oregano, sugar, a pinch of salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer until sauce thickens a bit and flavors meld, about 10-12 minutes. Taste sauce, adjust seasoning if necessary, cover and keep warm.

2 Preheat oven to 450°F. Cut each chicken breast half in half for smaller pieces. With a meat pounder, pound the chicken pieces to flatten them to an even thickness - between 1/4 - 1/2 inch. You might find it easier to put the chicken between layers of plastic wrap before pounding.

3 Whisk together mustard, vinegar, salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper in a large bowl, add the chicken pieces, tossing to coat well.

4 In another bowl, mix together the bread crumbs, grated cheese, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Mix well and add in the melted butter. Transfer to a shallow plate. Dredge the chicken pieces 1 piece at a time in the crumb mixture, coating completely. Press the crumbs in gently to adhere and transfer to a stick-free baking sheet. Bake in the middle of the oven until golden brown and cooked through, about 15 minutes.

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat and rub roast with salt and pepper.

When very hot, carefully place roast in pan and sear on all sides. You're not cooking the meat, you're just browning it quickly on all sides to add flavor and seal in the juices.

Place in crockpot and sprinkle with onion soup mixes. Pour water and beef broth over roast.

Cook 8-10 hours on low or cook 4-5 hours on high and another 3-4 hours on low. It's hard to screw this part up; basically, the longer it cooks, the more tender it will be. But you know it's done when you pop a fork in it and the meat just falls apart. When meat is ready, shred with a fork.

Place meat in crusty rolls. Top with cheese and broil open-faced in the oven or toaster oven for a few minutes, until bread is golden and cheese is melty.

In a medium/medium-large pot, sauté chicken thighs until exterior looks golden. Add garlic, ginger, and onion, cook until the garlic is light golden. Add water and bring to a boil. Once it boils, add rice and reduce heat to medium. Cover and cook for half an hour to forty-five minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Stir in green onions and serve. It should be like a thick rice porridge.

In a non-stick sauce pan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic. Stand above the pan (but not close enough to scald your face) and inhale. Ahhh...butter and garlic. Okay, now get cooking again. Let the garlic saute for about 30 seconds, you don't want to burn it. It should be nice and bubbly.

Then add milk mixture to the pan. Stir constantly for about 3 or 4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should be much thicker now.

When it's nice and thickened remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese, stir it up and then cover immediately. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before using. It will continue to thicken upon standing. Also, if you have leftovers in the fridge, the sauce will thicken almost into a solid. Just re-heat and add a little milk and it will be back to normal again.

Ingredients

1 (1-pound) top sirloin steak, sliced against the grain into thin strips

1/2 cup water

8 ounces wide rice sticks

3 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions

Preparation

1. Prepare grill to medium-high heat.2. Combine first 6 ingredients in a zip-top bag. Add beef to bag; seal. Marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes, turning once. Remove steak from bag; reserve marinade. Thread steak evenly onto 8 (8-inch) skewers. Grill 2 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Combine reserved marinade and water in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute.3. Soak noodles in boiling water until tender; drain. Place noodles in a large bowl. Pour reserved marinade mixture over noodles; sprinkle with onions; toss. Serve with skewers.

Note from Cara: I just looked at my Korean Beef recipe and realized that I didn't add the sugar when I made it last night. It was delicious anyway and I don't think I would use it next time. Maybe if the things were grilled it would help them to caramelize or something, but for stir fry it was fine without.

In a small saucepan, whisk together everything but the cilantro. Set to medium heat, bring to simmer, and let simmer for 5 mins. Remove from heat and add cilantro.

Note from Stacy: Well, I had intended to do stir-fry, but I ended up baking my marinated chicken (I had marinated two large chicken breasts in hot chili oil, soy sauce, cayenne pepper, and rice wine vinegar), shredding it, adding it to cooked egg noodles, ladling on the peanut sauce, then tossing some scallions on top.

Seriously effing yum. Highly recommend, as long as you like things peanutty.

Preparation

1. Cook peas and asparagus in boiling water for 3 minutes or until asparagus is crisp-tender; drain. Plunge into ice water; drain. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain pasta in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid. Combine pasta and vegetables.

From http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/04/creamed-spinach-to-die-for/

Ingredients

1 stick Butter

8 Tablespoons Flour

½ whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced

3 cloves Garlic, Finely Minced

2 cups Milk

Salt And Pepper, to taste

1 pinch Ground Nutmeg

3 Tablespoons Butter

24 ounces, weight Baby Spinach

Preparation Instructions

Melt 1 stick of butter in a pot. Sprinkle in flour and whisk together. Cook over medium heat for five minutes or until light golden brown. Throw in onion and garlic and stir together, cooking for another minute. Pour in milk, whisking constantly, and cook for another five minutes while you cook the spinach.

To cook spinach, melt 3 tablespoons butter in a separate pot. Add spinach in increments until all incorporated, and cook until wilted but not soggy, about 4 to 5 minutes.

Season the cream sauce with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add spinach to the cream sauce, stirring gently to combine. Serve immediately.

Note from Jeni:This is what I used. I used cream, instead of milk though, and it was way too much onion for my taste.

I cooked a couple of small chicken breasts in stock I took from the freezer (left over from boiling down a deli chicken). Took the chicken out and added half a package of ravioli, the kind from the deli section - again leftovers from the freezer. I microwaved a package of green giant "Digestive Health" mixed vegetables - carrots, spinach and white beans in an Italian-tasting butter dressing, and put that in the soup along with the chicken, and watered down the broth until it tasted right. Done.